Computational design and optimization for particle physics detectors

Optimization of particle detectors is a critical area of research, particularly for future high-energy physics experiments, which will require a technological leap to cope with the necessary performance and radiation hardness at the highest energy accelerators.

Particle detectors involving photons, such as scintillation or Cherenkov photons, are widely used. Such devices may provide crucial advantages regarding radiation hardness and detection speed. The creation, transport and detection of photons created in the initial interaction of a primary particle with a detection medium is governed by physics processes at the intersection of quantum and classical physics.

Detector numerical optimization techniques to improve sensitivity, timing precision, and spatial resolution can have striking similarities for seemingly very different applications such as scintillators and light guiding structures as well as silicone photomultipliers (SiPM) and superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs).

In this presentation, we explore the integration of GEANT4 simulations and finite element method (FEM) codes to optimize particle detector designs. In particular, we focus on the use of GEANT4 for the simulation of the particle-matter interaction and the integration of the results within FEM codes for higher computational efficiency in the calculations and optimizations. We show examples of the geometries studied and the sensitivity to simulation parameters for the initial design geometries. We also provide numerical optimization parameterizations within GEANT4 and FEM codes using shape optimization and splines to improve specific metrics for the detector. We examine and study the results and compare them with the initial designs.

The conclusions show that, while experimental techniques are still needed to validate the results from these optimizations, incorporating newer computational design-based methods can save time and cost in finding the optimal design of future particle detectors.